Valérie Duchateau grew up in Céret, near the Spanish border. At the age of nine, her first teacher, Angel Iglesias, took her to Barcelona where she played Paganini guitars.
She attended the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris where she won a First Prize before going to the United States where she received the First Prize from the D'Addario Foundation in New York.
His first album, "America", was recorded in Nashville in 1995, under the direction of Thom Bresh, the son of the famous Merle Merle Travis.
In 1998, Valérie Duchateau began composing and wrote the music for several television shows, including
"Special Envoy".
After a stint as first soloist at the Paris Opera, she successively paid tribute to Barbara ("La Guitare Chante Barbara") and Django Reinhardt ("Parfum de Django") while initiating the series "Les Chefs d'oeuvre de la Guitare Classique" which today has 6 volumes sold in over 60,000 copies.
A pioneer in putting her albums online on legal download platforms (Deezer, Spotify, MusicMe, etc.), she has, to date, sold several million tracks through this channel.
Still as curious, she continued her experience by launching a magazine dedicated to the acoustic guitar (Guitarist Acoustic) then by taking over the magazine Guitare Classique.
Today, 13 albums later, Valérie Duchateau is an accomplished artist both in her teaching approach and in her interpretation, arrangements and compositions in the field of classical guitar.
Valérie Duchâteau grew up in Céret, a small town located in the south of France and impregnated with a lot of culture as Picasso or Braque also stayed there before becoming famous. The geographical situation of Céret, at a few miles from Spain, will really help her concerning the choice of her musical instrument and so she will choose to play the guitar very naturally.
She learned at the “Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris”, where she got a first prize before appealing to the United States. There she got the first prize of the “Foundation d’Addario”. After a long tour through this country with David Leisner, she flew to Japan where she played with Minoru Inagaki.
Coming back from one of her journeys, she met Marcel Dadi with whom she often shared the stage. If she only was a classical guitarist until this period, she discovered then country music, picking. One more time, she played with the greatest artists like Chet Atkins, Larry Corryel or also Nato Lima..
In Nashville, where she felt a little at home, Tom Bresh managed her first album “America”.
Then she found her classical musical universe for two years again, at the “Opéra de Paris”, where the conductor James Conlo wanted her as a soloist guitarist at his side.
She also paid a tribute to the great Django Reinhardt with the album “Perfume of Django”, 12 original transcriptions of the Gipsy Master.
She continued her experience with press by starting a magazine devoted to the acoustic guitar, “Guitarist Acoustic” and another magazine devoted to the classical guitar, “Guitare Classique”.
Today, Valérie Duchâteau is an artist and accomplished lady who was able to find a new way in the classical guitar genre, as well in her educational work as in her performance, her arrangements or compositions.
Music playing is the speech of her mind.